The invention relates to a device for feeding boards to crosscut saws comprising at least one feeding device and at least one transverse transport unit arranged downstream which transverse transport unit has arranged downstream thereof at least two loading planes, positioned at different levels on which the boards are supplied to at least one crosscut saw, respectively, and which transverse transport unit is adjustable about an axis transverse to the feeding direction of the boards relative to the respective loading plane.
In wood processing it is known to first scan boards or pieces of wood to be sawed by means of a stationary scanning unit in a continuous process to detect in this way e.g. flaws in the boards that must be removed during further processing. The board data acquired by the scanning unit are optimized by software and a cutting list is computed for each board. Based on the cutting list, the scanned board is then processed by the crosscut saws. After the scanning process, the boards are received by a mechanizing device wherein at the transfer station the proper cutting list is assigned to the respective board. The boards with assigned cutting list are supplied to one or several cross-cut saws. After the scanning process, the boards, aligned with one end face, are transferred from a feeding device in the form of a wide roller table with cam chains or a wide transport belt with transport compartments on top to a downstream transverse transport unit. At this location, the boards are individually received by the transverse transport unit and individually held in place by means of so-called floating pawls. Floating pawls are pneumatically controlled stop element rows that are actuated by signals of the device control. This signal is generated by one or several photo cells when the board is in the correct position. After receiving a certain number of boards, preferably between five and ten boards, the transverse transport unit is pivoted such that the boards are transferred to the downstream loading plane on which they are transported to the crosscut saw.
Often two loading planes arranged above one another are provided and they each have a crosscut saw correlated therewith. It is also possible to provide downstream a second transverse transport unit which is pivotable and by means of which further loading planes that have correlated therewith further crosscut saws, are accessed. The control in regard to the position of the boards on the transverse transport unit and the distribution of the boards onto the respective loading planes are realized by means of photo cells and the control unit of the device. This device is however prone to failure as regards follow-up of the boards. It can happen that a board is supplied to a crosscut saw and the electronic board data (cutting list) of a different board is transmitted to the control unit of the crosscut saw. This leads to faulty crosscut results until the feeding error has been recognized by control mechanisms and the device is stopped. Subsequently, the device must be emptied or processing must be continued until the device is empty; this is disruptive to the production process and decreases the performance.